Surviving the Festivities! Tip 12

And finally, after reading all the tips, (and maybe in spite of all the tips!) remember that it is a time to enjoy, to celebrate, to set yourself up for the long cold winter months ahead. You can only do so much and there will come a point when enough has to be enough.

Resolve to enjoy whatever comes your way and take the maximum pleasure from all the festive period; enjoy the spiritual side if that is important to you, enjoy the Bacchanalian side  if that does it for you, and smile!

Please do share any of your own secrets and tips with us; I’d love to hear them!

Surviving the Festivities! Tip 11

Breathing is Good for You!

If you feel yourself getting a little het up or stressed, try out this very quick tension reliever:

1) Sit down

2) Close your eyes

3) Breathe out one longer breath than normal (count during a normal out breath then make this one a few counts longer- but don’t hyperventilate or make yourelf feel uncomfortable. that would be totally missing the point….)!

4) Breathe normally for a few breaths. Enjoy the sensation of resting your eyes.

5) Breathe out a longer breath again. This is having the effect of helping you take more air into your lungs and breathe more deeply without over breathing.

6) Repeat this twice more. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.

7) Carry on as normal, but hopefully a little more refreshed!

Surviving the Festivities! Tip 10

What Does it Mean to YOU?

If it is beginning to feel a bit overwhelming, now is maybe the time to have an honest conversation with yourself.

What does the Christmas season really mean to you? Do you think it’s a mad waste of money? An extravagent material feast of overspending?

Or do you love all the traditions? Do you value the opportunities to reconnect with friends and or family? Do you love the lights and bustle in the shops? Is Christmas a spiritual event for you, an important part of your faith? Be totally honest with yourself; it’s just for your eyes.

Whatever it is that gives you pleasure, are you doing enough of it, or indeed any of it? If not, take some action now to make sure you are recharging your batteries as well. And as for having to do  those things you don’t like? Well, try and balance them out with something more life affirming, or try the 30 minute rule!

Surviving the Festivities! Tip 1.

The Pressure is Mounting…

We’re into December and the pressure is mounting. Suddenly every magazine you open is full of hints and tips to tell us how to stuff a turkey with one hand while designing creative place settings with the other- and managing to look incredibly gorgeous and composed all at the same time!!

I guess there must be some women out there who manage this but I have yet to meet them. Every photo ever taken of me on Christmas day shows me extremely red-faced, (heat from oven not champagne-honestly!) I always have frazzled, frizzled,frankly deranged hair, as steam from veg has shrivelled my immaculate Christmas coiffured look to ‘through a holly hedge backwards’ chic! And my optimistically applied mascara has melted in the  heat giving me a ‘Bride of Frankenstein meets Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’ look! I’ve grown to like it….

So my first tip is:

LOWER YOUR STANDARDS!

Ignore the glossy, air brushed models in magazines.

Read the magazines for fun (I love them!) but regard them as a work of fiction; don’t set yourself impossible standards and count yourself lucky if you manage to glean a tip a or two that actually helps.

And if you have any sage advice from your own experience, please do share it!

Tips for Surviving Christmas!

• Rule number one, there are no rules! What ‘rules’ or traditions have you invented over the years and are they still relevant to your Christmases today? It may be that you are giving yourself unnecessary stress and work, so just take a moment to think if you have to do it the way you have always done.
• Lower your expectations immediately. No one is perfect and your Christmas gathering won’t be either. Almost every magazine on sale during December will have a feature telling you how to have the perfect Christmas. Read them for interest but regard them as works of fiction! Your celebrations are unique and should be what works for you.
• If you have a house full of relatives expect the worst and plan for it. If Uncle Bernard always gets drunk it’s no use fantasising that he’ll turn teetotal  just while he’s at your house. He won’t. Likewise with family members who usually don’t get on well together. They still won’t so plan for it and expect it. Everyone cramped in one hot room for hours on end is a sure fire way to provoke a few arguments so make sure you have an activity like a walk for those who need to get out for a while. Read the rest of this entry